Chapter fourteen
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Gydion fell to the ground with a loud *Thump*. One second he was walking on the training field and in the next, he was on his ass in a dimly lit cave. He frantically looked all around him wondering what had just happened.
Tryamons voice cut through his confusion as it echoed against the walls.
"Hahahaha! You're just as prone to fright your father was and his father was before him."
Still looking around, Gydion rose question to the statement.
~Like my father and grandfather…? What does she mean?~
"Like father…? What…?"
Tryamon appeared from out of the darkness of the cavern. Her form was naked crystalline beauty that reflected the low light from the torches in the room, making purple stars dance upon the walls of a false sky. Her voice once again echoed throughout the cave even though her lips shown no movement.
"Indeed. In his youth, Lugh was always susceptible to my merry-making endeavors. He doesn't much care for it anymore though."
Gydion instinctually backed up on his hands. The flight of fear was nestled in the back of his non-existent heart, threatening to jump out of his body. Fairies never showed their true forms. Reason being is because they were the most vulnerable to harm in that state.
True death.
The destruction of the body.
It truly frightened him that she was approaching in such a state and it showed on his face.
Tryamon paid his terror no mind, casually strolling over to him until she towered over him.
Her appearance was truly awe-inspiring. Like the physical manifestation of a galaxy.
She reached forward with one hand and pressed her thumb against his forehead. Gydion's body became limp as he fell backward. The only thing he could move was his eyes. He watched intently as Tryamon knelt down at his side and placed her hand on his chest. The clothing there had given way to her hand as she pressed her palm down. His skin became rigid and then a crystalline orange as she continued to apply pressure.
"I wonder if you too will grow callus like Lugh." She said as she removed her hand from Gydions chest.
His body gradually began to shift to its true form from both places where Tryamon had touched him. This overwhelming sense of peace overcame him, so much so that his transition to his natural state went entirely unnoticed by him.
Tryamon once again lowered her hands to his chest, but unlike the first time, she only placed her index finger on him. Slowly she began to drag it along his abdomen, etching symmetrical patterns into his golden onyx body. Thick lines merged into one another creating elaborate Kaleidoscope patterns that interlinked and became more defined the more she drew.
As she did this, Gydion felt a torrent of foreign energy assault his body. The shock was so extreme that the Liquid Iron inside his body began to seep out of him through the hairline cracks in his form, pooling beneath him.
Gydion couldn't tell how long Tryamon had been at work for his perception capabilities all but vanished when she had pressed against his forehead.
Eventually though, she finished with her etching. She reached up to his head and pressed her thumb against his forehead again, returning control to him.
"We are finished," Tryamon said as she rested her hands in her lap. Her form gradually began to soften until her body once again turned to its soft porcelain visage. The false sky and the stars that dotted it dissipated with her transformation.
"Do you feel it?" Tryamon asked.
Gydion only nodded as he sat up and looked down at the newly inscribed patterns on his body. He too returned to his visage, watching intently as the patterns on his body took the form of tattoos on his visage.
"What… is this?"
Tryamon stood up and began to walk away into the darkness of the cavern.
"Those are my newest take on mana conduits. They're based off Su's eyes."
Gydion stood up and made to follow Tryamon into the darkness, questioning her. His Iron, dragged behind his heels, slowly being reabsorbed.
"N-New? So this hasn't been done before?"
The thought terrified him. He did not want to be the guinea pig for something untested, but it was from the Grand Magus of the abyss.
"That is exactly right. Her eyes are special you see. I wanted to see if I could replicate some of that same peculiar power with you If I reproduced the pattern. Seems as though I succeeded."
"Don't you feel a new lump of energy resting inside your body?
Gydion nodded and replied.
"I do. I felt it as you were inscribing."
She gave no response back. Instead, she vanished from sight like before. He knew what was going to happen and so braced himself. The next moment he found himself falling back into the training yard, the only thing was that it was in the dead of night. He rolled out as he impacted the ground.
~Has it really been all day? The etching only felt as if it took five minutes.~ He thought to himself as his eyes scanned the area that had been taken by the darkness of the true stars.
He saw Tryamon sitting on top of one of the larger pillars in the area, dangling her sandals off her feet.
"Go wake up Su and set up camp for the night." She said as she pointed towards the pond.
Gydion looked over and squinted his eyes. It was very difficult for him to see, but he saw a small humanoid bump in the distance.
With a sigh, he began to jog over to the area.
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"Alright. Come on, Beast Princess."
I felt someone scoop me up off the ground, waking me up from my blissful sleep. I didn't see where I was carried, but they placed me in what felt like a hammock and left. I curled my legs to my chest and attempted to go back to sleep. The hammock was far comfier than the hard floor after all.
I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. I looked around and saw Gydion sitting on a rock with his hands out. His face was so intensely focused that it looked like he was trying to take a dump, but was too constipated. That was just outside of the entrance to the tent. It was a really large and spacious sky blue tent.
I folded myself out of the Hammock and stood up.
"Alright! Time for some morning stretching." I said aloud.
Gydion turned his head, looked at me with an annoyed face, Then went back to doing whatever it was that he was doing.
That guy is as moody as effort.
I started stretching my arms first. Y'know, pulling them to the sides, upwards, and backward for flexibility. I moved on to arm circles and then wrist exercises. After that I moved onto my legs, leaning side to side before doing some bunny hops. To top it off I went down into a split and stretched down my legs, touching my toes. I've been doing this every morning for the past four years so this level of reach was casual. I saw it in an assimilated memory and decided it would be a good thing to do.
Finished with my stretch, I made my way into my bag to look for a new change of clothing. What I was currently wearing was filthy with all the mud and dirt from yesterday's training.
Eeeh?
I began to rummage further into my bag looking for the clothes I definitely packed.
"Where are they…" I said aloud.
"They weren't fit for the environment so I took them."
I turned around and saw Grandma standing in the entrance of the tent with an evil smile on her face.
"You can have this though. Her right hand disappeared from view behind her back and came back into view with two articles folded together. She tossed them over to me. I caught them with ease and unfolded them to see what they were.
"You're just trying to get me to wear what you're wearing!"
Grandma just shrugged her shoulders and walked out of view in the direction of Gydion.
I took another look at the white blouse and black trousers and pouted.
I guess…
I sighed and slipped into them. The blouse shrunk to my size as soon as I put my arms through the sleeves and buttoned it up. Same thing with the trousers. If nothing else, they were comfortable and allowed for plenty of breath. I wiggled my toes and looked at my sandals.
"Nah."
I walked out of the tent and looked up into the sky
Ah. This is great! I've been inside the tower for years!
*Sniiifff*
And the air! It's so fresh and clean! Ah! This is heaven.
I'd totally fall back on the ground and just stare up into the sky, but these are brand new clothes and Grandma will likely want to do something.
After my nature moment, I skipped over to where I saw Gydion and Grandma.
"You're doing too much thinking. Simply focus on the parameters, nothing more or less." She said as she watched him fail whatever it was he was doing again.
Woah what's going on over here. I stop myself and mischievously tiptoed behind Gydion, peering over her shoulder.
"Whatcha doin' "
Gydion, who seemed to finally be getting some of the form down for his spell, fumbled forward and jerked his head around.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"And good morning to you too ^^," I said as I patted him on the back.
Gydion growled and stood up with his hands still together.
"So yeah, What are you doing?"
"Can't you see? I'm trying to cast a spell."
I nodded and gripped my chin like an old sage with one hand while I held out my other and summoned a simple fireball.
Steam flew out of his ears as he watched me cast the spell without any effort at all.
Grandma grinned slightly at my display as she leaned against one of the pillars behind Gydion.
I juggled the fireball from hand to hand before putting it out. After yesterday things that were as simple as that were as natural as breathing.
Gydion sighed and lowered his hands, walking away from the both of us.
Grandma called out to him
"You giving up?"
He shouted back
"I'm taking a break! If I keep at it any longer I might lose my patience entirely."
Grandma shrugged and beckoned me over
Hoh. Well, at least he knows his limits. I watched him go as I walked over to Grandma to talk to her. She patted my head and pulled me into her embrace, pushing my head into her supple bosom. Part of me somehow loved this sensation, but the other part of me didn't really care for it. If I had to guess it would be my past self that was transmitting those feelings. Does that make me weird? Or just past me weird?
"Oh wow. Your horns grew a bit." Grandma remarked as she gently brushed her thumb on the tip of one of them.
I immediately ducked down and shielded my horns away from Grandma's hands. I hate it when people touch them, even Grandma.
"Heyyy don't be cute like that, you'll make me want to tease you more!" She said as she tapped my shoulder.
"I can't help it if you keep touching them unexpectedly… Makes me feel weird…"
Grandma covered her mouth and audibly did an "Awww".
-w-
"Soooo What'll we be learning today?" I asked.
Grandma pushed herself off the pillar and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a small rectangular card and handed it to me. It had my name and face with my measurements…
"What is this?"
"An ID card."
"For…."
"The mage's association of the abyss."
Hmm. That's pretty neat. Here it is said… Intermediate class…? I guess that's my ranking, but how does she know that this is my skill level if she didn't watch me practice at all. I mean I guess that doesn't matter since she is the Grand Magus and she's likely trained a lot of students to know but still. I guess I'll ask about it now since she is here.
"Why intermediate class?"
"Because that's what I felt was most appropriate from the display you gave me yesterday."
Display? When? I was alone the entire day yesterday.
"You left me alone for the entire day though."
"Is that what you think? I was in fact watching you the entire time with one of my self projections."
What? Self projections? I think I've seen something like that in my memories before… Yeah! It was this stupid blonde kid who was able to clone hundreds of himself. She can do that? As to be expected of Grandma.
I pocketed the card before crossing my arms and smiled smugly for no reason thinking about how awesome Grandma was.
She just raised her eyebrow and chuckled cheerfully, ruffling my hair with her hand.
"You've got much to learn; take the time to really experiment with your studies. With mana, the only thing that limits you is yourself. So today I'm going to show you what you did wrong yesterday. That includes this as well."
She ruffled my hair once more before pulling her hand back
"It's like a forest with how tangled it is Su. You can't let it get like that. It's not proper for a young lady like yourself."
It's not my fault that my hair got like this! I was working really hard yesterday, you know! Besides, It's naturally curly! She just doesn't understand because her hair is perfect! Still, I don't wanna be rude to Grandma so…
"I know… I just got caught up and-"
Grandma smiled and picked me up before I could even finish my sentence, planting a kiss on my forehead.
"I know darling girl. Just try to keep it in mind in the future, okay?"
I nodded while latching onto her like a Koala bear
"Okay!"